Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

the Korean War to release repressed memories, detect soldier malingering, and
conduct prisoner of war (POW) interrogations (Odesho, 2004). During the 1950s
and 1960s, a U.S. intelligence agency had active programs of developing and
testing drugs with truth serum properties, such as LSD (Select Committee on
Intelligence, 1977).
Potential
Truth serums do not force the subject to tell the truth. Instead, they typically
cause the subject to become more talkative. Thus, although a subject’s inhibitions
have been lowered, there is no guarantee that any of the information elicited will
be accurate. Given that none of these substances has been shown to be 100%
effective in obtaining truthful information, there has been much dispute regarding
the legality and ethical implications of their use. State v. Pitts was a precedentsetting
case on the admissibility of sodium amytal interview evidence. The New
Jersey Supreme Court concluded in 1989 that:
This evidence [sodium amytal] was excluded by the trial court.
The Court now predicates its approval of the trial court’s
exclusion of this evidence on two factors: the use of the
sodium amytal interview as a means to ascertain the “truth” of
defendant’s belief or motive for killing the victim…
The experts further concurred that the results of a sodium
amytal interview are not considered scientifically reliable for
the purpose of ascertaining truth as such. Nevertheless, the
results of sodium amytal are useful (Supreme Court of New
Jersey, 1989).
Although other jurisdictions reject the admissibility of truth serum interview
evidence for the purpose of establishing truth in a legal setting, the use of these
drugs for interrogation purposes has been reconsidered in the wake of recent
terrorist activities (Odesho, 2004; Keller, 2005). The Department of Justice’s
Office of Legal Counsel sent a memorandum to the President in 2002, suggesting
that such use might be permissible (Bybee, 2002).
Throughout history, truth serums have been correlated with abusive
interrogations and involuntary confessions (Winter, 2005). Article 17 of the
1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War places
restrictions on the detainment powers that may be used to interrogate POWs;
however, the language does not outlaw the use of truth serums (Geneva
Convention, 1949). Given that this international law applies only to prisoners of
war, the interpretation of POW status will likely further cloud the legal and ethical
debate surrounding the resurgence of truth serums.
Neurological Mechanisms
Dissatisfaction with the lack of a clear causal chain from the psychological
decision to deceive, to the autonomic functions (e.g., skin conductance,
respiration) currently measured by the polygraph, has led some researchers to
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